4. A bradawl, used by joiners, shoemakers and saddlers (Sc. 1872 N. & Q. (Ser. 4) IX. 476, a borin stob; Sh., ne.Sc., Ags. 1971); a piercer used in the making of rag or wool rugs (Dmf. 1971).
Sh. 1879 Shetland Times (16 Aug.): I maun hae a broag or a stobb.Abd. 1881 Times (4 Jan.) 11: Cruickshank, a saddler, had deliberately stabbed him with a “stob”.Cai. 1891 D. StephenGleanings 154: The Caithness name for the articles was “stob awls.”

‡5. A Y-shaped stick with sharp points acting like a staple driven into the sods laid on the sarking of a roof so as to compress the bundles of the overlaid straw used in thatching (Bnff., Abd. 1971), later a two-pronged stick or rod used to push thatching straw into roof sods. Cf. Sting, n.2, 5. Comb. stob-tha(i)ck, -theek, n., thatch put on in this manner (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 183); v., to thatch with stobs (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.; ne.Sc. 1971). Hence stob-thacker (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.), -thack man, and reduced and hypocoristic forms stobbie, -y (Abd. 1921 T.S.D.C.), stob-thackit. Now hist.
Abd. 1729 Third S.C. Misc. II. 136: They thatch exceeding well here which lasts 20, 30 years, which we call stob-thatching.Bnff. 1758 Session Papers. Mortimer v. Hay (6 Jan.) 5: The Mansion-house had a stob-thatched Roof.Kcd. 1813 G. RobertsonAgric. Kcd. 187: A regular roof of foreign timber, and stob-thatch, sewed on with rope yarn.Ags. 1818 Scots Mag. (Aug.) 127: Stob-thatched: that is, the rafters are then covered with shrubs, generally broom, laid to cross the rafters at right angles; over this is placed a complete covering of divots, which is again covered with straw, bound up in large handfuls, one end of which is pushed between the divots; this is placed so thick as to form a covering from four to about eight inches deep.Sc. 1844 H. StephensBk. Farm III. 1097: Other modes of thatching stacks, such as sticking in handfuls of straw . . . and keeping them down with stobs of willow.Ags. 1888 Brechin Advert. (30 Oct.) 3: A snug bit hoosie, wi' a stob-theekit roof.Abd. 1891 T. MairArn and His Wife 52: An, whan the stobthack man cam' on — Nae Ketty cam' to get his news, Or tak' her fun at “Stoby.”Kcd. 1893 C. A. MollysonFordoun 182: David Clark was by profession a “stob-thatcher.”Abd. 1929 J. MilneDreams o Buchan 12: I'll harl't tae keep it dry an stob-thack it weel forby.Abd. 1955 W. P. MilneEppie Elrick xix.: A clump of small “stob-thackit hoosies.”Abd. 1970 Studies to E. E. Evans 44: A two-toed “stob” up to two feet long with an iron head and a wooden shaft.

6. The stump of a rainbow, showing the lower ends of the bow only, looked on as presaging a storm at sea (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Kcd., Ags., Fif. 1971).

8. Combs. and derivs.: (1) craw stobe a spike on the pinnacle of a gable; (2) paling-stob, a fence-stake (ne.Sc., Per. 1971); (3) stob-dike, a stake fence; (4) stob-feather, the stumpy undeveloped feather of an unfledged bird (Sc. 1808 Jam.). Hence stob-feathert, -erd, unfledged; also transf. of human beings, and fig. provided for, equipped or furnished for life (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 183); (5) stob-fence, a fence of wire fixed on wooden posts. Gen.Sc.; (6) stob-net, a salmon net fixed on posts, a stake-net. See Stake, n., 1.; (7) stobbie, -y, rough and spiky, prickly , bristly (ne.Sc., Ags. 1971); (8) stobbins, -ans, the stubbly broken pieces of straw left after threshing (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 182).
(1)Abd. 1920 A. RobbMS. vi.: A druckit heiddie craw sittin on the craw stobe o' the auld barn.(2)Rxb. 1851 Justiciary Reports (1853) 477: Threatening to beat them with a bludgeon or pailing-stob.Arg. 1914 N. MunroNew Road xi.: Here they are in heaps like paling-stobs!Per. 1935 W. SoutarPoems in Scots 40: She gat on a palin' stob. Afore the cock wud craw.(3)Gsw. 1723 Burgh Rec. Gsw. (1909) 166: The burden of his upholding of the stob-dikes.Rnf. 1763 Session Papers, M'Crae v. M'Farlane (25 May) 10: Inclosed with a stob-dike, and railed at the head with rafters and rails.(4)n.Sc. 1808 Jam.: Of a young couple who have little provision or furniture, it is said: They're nae stob-feather'd yet.Abd. 1923 Swatches o' Hamespun 17: The only een o' a rale big brodmil that didna dwine an' dee or they war gey weel stob-feddert.(5)Rnf. 1970 Greenock Teleg. (25 Sept.) 11: To put up Stob Fences at the unprotected parts of the track.(6)Slg. 1756 Scots Mag. (Jan.) 49: All the pock, stop [sic], and herry-water nets, which they should find people making use of in the Forth above the Pow of Alloa.Dmb. 1806 MorisonDecisions 14238: Salmon fishing in the river Leven, by means of stob-nets.(7)Crm. 1835 H. MillerScenes & Leg. 254: Ye'll build the dyke, and make it heigh, heigh, and stobbie on the top.Ags. 1862 Brechin Advert. (29 July) 2: On a stobby hawthorn spray.Abd. 1898 J. M. CobbanAngel iii.: What for do men wear a stobby bunch of hair beneath their nose?(8)Abd. 1920 A. RobbMS. iv.: The beasts got sometimes leepit caff — that wis caff stobbins steepit wi' het water.

II. v. 1. To stab with a sword or the like (Sc. 1808 Jam.). Also in Eng. dial.
ne.Sc. 1700 S.C. Misc. III. 186: McPhersone came in to his house, and stobbed the bed, seeking the deponent.Sc. 1707 J. FrazerSecond Sight Pref.: Ere Night he was stobbed by a Poinard.Sc. 1713 R. WodrowAnalecta (M.C.) II 237: To stobb the first man who should venture to make the proposall.Sc. 1749 Scots Mag. (Dec.) 606: Stobbed or wounded in his left side.

3. To fence with stakes, to mark or bound with posts; to prop up with stakes (Lnk., Dmf., Rxb. 1971). Cf. n., 7. Vbl.n. stob(b)ing. Now hist. in regard to the march-riding festival in Dumfries. Also in n.Eng. dial.
Gsw. 1718 Burgh Rec. Gsw. (1909) 47: Candlerigg Street, as the same is now stobbed, marked and meathed.Gsw. 1739 Burgh Rec. Gsw. (1911) 1: For stobs and stobbing the Green.Rnf. 1771 Session Papers, Wallace v. Ballantyne (6 March) 14: Cutting sticks to stob pease in his garden.Dmf. 1962 Stat. Acc.3 110: The Cornet, The Cornet's Lass and four Lynors (whose duty it is to “stob and nog” the boundaries).

6. To pare off the surface turf of a peat-bank in order to start working the peat (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 182).
Sc. 1841 Quarterly Jnl. Agric. XII. 144: Stobbing the bank, that is, taking off the top which is to be cut of the same length as the peat.

7. To begin to sprout feathers, to be at the fledgling stage or after moulting. Hence ppl.adj. stobbed, of a bird (Sc. 1808 Jam.), stobby (Ork. 1971).

[A variant of stub. O.Sc. stob, a stake, 1489, a nail, 1496, a twig, 1513, a thatching-rod, 1556, a stab, 1605, a thorn, 1637, to thatch, 1535, to stake, 1520, to stab, 1535, Mid.Eng. stob, a twig. For the o- form cf. also O.N. stobbe, a stump, Du. stobbe, id.]